Sex, Blood, & Devilman: Crybaby

I started Devilman: Crybaby at 1 am. I’m now writing this at 6 am. This is the pinnacle of a binge-watching show.

To say Devilman: Crybaby is a love letter or throwback to 80’s and 90’s anime would be an insult. This is a f*cking blood-relative of those shows. It is filthy, sinful, and downright licentious. It’s like being hugged by smut. You’re either going to wallow in it and have the time of your life or sit in the corner and wish you were doing anything else. And baby, I wallowed.

This review will be spoiler free because more than anything else, I want you to get down in the filth with me.

Devilman is a Go Nagai property, and Netflix made sure you knew it (seriously, look him up). The sheer amount of sex and nudity in episode one alone is likely more than every anime in 2017 put together. The animation style is different, yet gorgeous. It’s often as wild as the show itself. The violence and the transformations of the demons is something to be marveled at. I caught myself grinning for the entire final 8 minutes of the first episode. I was feeling something I hadn’t in a long time—pure fun.

Episodes one through five are magnificently masturbatory. But even debauchery, as fun as it is, can grow weary on the eyes. And starting with episode six, the story starts becoming more and more cohesive. Even the nudity feels more purposeful and less smutty. And to the show’s credit, I remained glued to the screen as it continued to shock, awe, and twist my brain.

(Source:: Netflix)

This show gets a 9/10. Easily. Hell, Devilman: Crybaby is so good that I bought the original Devilman series off of eBay.

I want to see more anime like this, and I know I’m not alone. I’m not sure when anime studios decided nudity and crazy amounts of violence didn’t belong in anime. But if not in anime, then where? Not every anime needs to be Devilman: Crybaby. But some really need to be, and I have a perfect example from this season—Basilisk. Compare 2005’s first episode and 2018’s first episode; 2005 wins by a landslide. It’s not afraid to be violent and that’s why it succeeds. It’s why I’m watching that 13-year-old anime over the brand new one. So to anime studios, I make this plea:

Start funding shows with nearly comical amounts of violence. And fund more shows with “just because” nudity—female AND male. The audience is here, and we’re ready.